Sony Xperia Z Ultra: The quad-core 2.2GHz MEGA SCREEN PHONDLESLAB

And you thought the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 was big...

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No stylus to hand? USE A BIRO

Unusually you can use an ordinary graphite pencil or pen to write on the display as you would with an S-Pen on a Galaxy Note device. You don’t get any of the S-Pen TouchWiz functionality but it does mean you can take easier advantage of the handwriting recognition system. Despite the scratch-proof screen glass, I’m not sure this is something I’d suggest you do regularly or with any gusto.

Not much smaller than a Nexus 7

Turning to the guts of the machine, the Z Ultra is the first device I’ve come across that uses Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 800 chipset, which will also power Samsung’s forthcoming Galaxy Note 3. It features a quad-core 2.2GHz Krait processor, an Adreno 330 graphics core and 2GB of RAM. The Adreno 330 GPU supports OpenGL ES 3.0 which is also a feature of Android 4.3 so it is reasonable to expect even better graphics performance once the Ultra is updated from version 4.2. Sony says this will happen in the near future.

Not that the graphics need better performance. As it stands, the Ultra is a seriously powerful device, the first I’ve seen to return AnTuTu scores over 30,000, let alone 35,000. Twelve months ago even half that number was pretty impressive which shows how quickly things are developing in the world of mobile chippery. Of course whether or not you need that sort of grunt in a phone is another matter. The SunSpider web page rendering score of 750 was equally impressive.

The Sim and Micro SD slots are covered; the audio jack isn’t

With dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, 3G at 42Mbps up and 5.8Mbps down, and Cat 4 LTE radios, the Ultra is pretty well connected wirelessly. It lacks only an infrared transmitter. You also get out-of-the-box USB On-The-Go hosting and MHL media streaming from the micro USB port. There’s 16GB of built-in storage and a Micro SD card slot to back that up.

Sony has re-skinned Android with its own launcher and added some proprietary apps. Sony’s music (Walkman), video (Movies) and gallery (Album) apps pay dividends on a device with such a large and high-quality display as the Ultra. The single loudspeaker is a bit puny when compared to the new Nexus 7’s stereo set but the sound through a good pair of headphones is excellent.

The Z Ultra leaves the Galaxy S4 in its wake

One thing Sony hasn’t done is build a reduced-scale keyboard or dialler pad, unlike both Samsung and Huawei which offer just that on their VLPs. Maybe Sony has decided that trying to use a device the size of the Ultra singlehandedly is not something to be encouraged. I’m inclined to agree.

I’m not so sure Sony has been wise to fit the Ultra with a piffling eight-megapixel camera with no LED flash, though. For this sort of money I expected all the Ultra’s features to be at the bleeding edge so was hoping at the least for the Xperia Z’s 13.1Mp photographic component. The Xperia Z1’s 20.7Mp shooter would have been an even better option. The Ultra’s camera produces reasonable results in decent light but I can’t really be any more generous than that.

The power and volume controls are well placed

As for the LED light, I don’t want one to take pictures in the gloom, I want one to use as a torch for when I can’t find my keys or the cat at night. There is nothing wrong with the 2Mp webcam, which can also record 1080p video at 30 frames per second. It makes for bright, crisp and tightly focussed video chats.

Finally, while the battery may be fixed in place it’s a beefy 3050mAh affair which kept a 1080p MP4 video looping for more than nine hours. Even when subjected to an hour or more each of talking, browsing and watching video every day you should easily be able to get to the 60-hour mark before needing to recharge.

The Reg Verdict

At more than £600 unlocked, the Ultra is far from cheap, though compared to a 64GB iPhone 5S it’s a steal. Price aside, the Z Ultra is now the definitive VLP. The screen is vast and visually stunning, the battery capacious, the media apps an object lesson in excellence, and the physical design impressive. And it’s waterproof, a first in class. Downsides? No LED flash and a rather mediocre camera, a fixed battery and a rather puny loudspeaker. Not everyone will think it worth close to twice the price of a Galaxy Mega 6.3 but if money is no object or you judge value on the Apple scale, you are unlikely to be disappointed. ®